For more than the last 100 years, farmers have been baling hay in manually manageable hay bales which are generally rectangular. The typical size for such a hay bale is 36 to 38 inches running the length of the bale across as the hay fibers, with an end panel of approximately 14″×18″ in dimension. Thus the face of the hay with exposed fiber ends has a dimension of 36″×14″. This traditional-formatted bale is held together by two wrappings of binder twine which extend down the length of the 36 inch sides and around the ends, enclosing the parallel hay fibers.
Some 25 years ago farmers started to switch over from standard sized bales to either rolls or giant sized bales. Rolled hay produces a single round bale that is approximately 5 feet in diameter and approximately 4 feet long, in the direction of the central axis. Polyester netting is used to wrap the round bales three or four times. The netting has openings which are approximately 1 to 2 inches square. There is no need to fasten the final cut end of the netting, since enough of the hay sticks out from the spiral round bale that the netting snags on protruding fibers.
The disadvantage of the round bales is that the hay has to be unwound; at least, the easiest way to remove hay from the bale is to unwind the spiral. But this is not nearly as convenient as removing a standard bale and carrying a standard bale to where animals are to be fed.
Additionally, giant sized bales that are 4 by 4 by 8-10 feet in cubic dimensions have been increasingly introduced into agriculture. In both cases, these larger hay bales require farm machinery, e.g. a forklift or a tractor with a front-end lift, to move the bales. Farmers are increasingly turning to large sized bales. It is very hard to get farm laborers today who will move standard sized bales by hand, since it is backbreaking work.
On the other hand, the customer may often prefer the standard sized bale. In particular, horse owners have a need for standard sized bales so the hay can be stored in a hayloft and moved in manageable amounts to feed the horses. This invention addresses a compromise between these two competing interests.
A Spanish company, “Arcusin” has built a machine that bundles 14 small bales into a large square held together by binder twine. The Spanish machine follows a standard hay baler in the field, collecting the 14 bales and fastening them together for deposit on the ground behind. These large bale-bundles are then loaded by machine onto wagons and trucks for delivery. In this specific machine, the hay bales rest on a surface while they are wrapped with the binder twine.
An American company in Pittsfield, Ill. makes a machine called a “Bale Band-It” that bundles individual hay bales, wrapping the bales together with wire. This unit is pulled behind a standard baler. As the bales exit the baler they are directed into the “Bale Band-It”. When 21 small bales are in the chamber, the bales are bundled together by wrapping them with steel banding wire. During this wrapping process, the bales rest on a support surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,799,466 shows a device where a plurality of small bales are stacked, lifted by articulated arms and wrapped in a several different types of materials, then the arms lower the wrapped bundle to the ground. Using the arms to lift the stacked bales and rotate them while being suspended in the air requires a rather complicated and expensive device.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,397,738 describes an automated hay bale stacking and bundling system wherein hay bales are elevated vertically in order to be placed in a stack, from above.
There remains a need to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art by providing a machine to pick up bales of hay from the field or from the baler, to stack the bales in a manual or a mechanical way in a predetermined package shape and size, then wrap the packages with netting or plastic before discharging the wrapped package to the field. There remains a further need to accomplish this using a relatively inexpensive piece of machinery. This invention addresses those needs.
The invention in its general form will first be described, and then its implementation in terms of specific embodiments will be detailed with reference to the drawings following hereafter. These embodiments are intended to demonstrate the principle of the invention, and the manner of its implementation. The invention in its broadest and more specific forms will then be further described, and defined, in each of the individual claims which conclude this Specification.